Medical care of individuals requires the widespread use of needles for taking blood samples, intravenous drug delivery, and the introduction or removal of other fluids via cannula, needles, or syringes, among other things. In the current context, the use of hypodermic needles to take blood samples has become commonplace in medicine, science, veterinary medicine, and biotechnology. The use of a hypodermic needle typically involves first inserting a needle into the patient, withdrawing a substance as required, and then removing the needle from the patient. In most applications, the withdrawn and contaminated needle must be handled carefully during disposal to avoid unintended needle stick injury.
To help prevent health care workers from becoming injured, safety means such as guards and shields have been developed to block the tip of these needles after use. Indeed, needle stick protection for medical professionals has become of particular importance in recent years because of the prevalence of potentially fatal infectious diseases, such as, for example, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and hepatitis that can be transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids through inadvertent wounds caused by accidental needle tip pricks after withdrawal from infected patients. Accordingly, many kinds of needle protection devices are available for providing post injection needle stick protection.
Devices which have been introduced to provide added protection against punctures by used needles fall into three basic categories, those which hide the withdrawn needle within a needle shield launched via a needle shield launching mechanism, those which require placement of a separate needle guard, and those which include a sliding shield which must be manually pushed along the needle shaft and over the tip of the used needle. Most of these needle guards are cumbersome and interfere with a single-handed procedure, and or require additional complicated pieces to attach the needle guard to the needle tip.